Trump made a “compelling case that you need more wall funding to secure the country,” Graham said on Fox News Tuesday night.

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“He needs to dig in and get the very Democrats who voted for $25 billion to give him $5 [billion] because we need the money now more than ever,” he added, referring to a February deal that fell through. It would have provided $25 billion for border security, including the wall, along with protections for young undocumented immigrants protected by the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

Graham's comments came hours after an Oval Office meeting Tuesday in which Trump stunned Republicans when he said he would take ownership of a partial government shutdown if an agreement could not be reached with Democrats over funding for a border wall.

Funding for seven government agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, will lapse on Dec. 21 without a deal.

Graham during the Fox interview urged Trump to pair DACA with border wall money in a new round of government funding and dare the Democrats to decline the deal.

“I think the president and people like me need to make a case to the American people that they’re denying this president money that makes sense. … It’s not the money, it’s the desire to have Trump fail,” he said.

“He’s in a good spot — make the case that this money is necessary, and challenge the Democrats to work on DACA plus the wall, and if they say no to that, that means they really do hate Trump more than they care about the country, and that will blow up in their face.”

Trump has made his campaign promise of a border wall the cornerstone of his immigration policy, though its funding is in serious jeopardy with Democrats poised to take control of the House of Representatives in January.